Beyond the Conventions — How feds are stuck in the campaign muck

It’s the end of August and we’re just hours away from the Republican National Convention — but for feds who are stuck in the election crosshairs this time of year is unsettling to say the least.

Tim McManus is the Vice President for Education and Outreach at the Partnership for Public Service.

He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program what feds should do to deal with the campaign talk.

“Both candidates talk about what government can and should do and typically that conversation turns to what is wrong in Washington. For the most part, the candidates are talking about Congress. But the problem is that the public at large doesn’t differentiate between federal workers and Congress members. They lump them together,” said McManus.

Feds end up on the short end of the stick.

What can feds do? McManus says, “you need to focus on today. You can speculate for hours about what will happen if one candidate wins over another. Or try to plan out everything. But it’s a waste of time. You need to focus on the now.”

What can the candidates do?McManus says, “both Mitt Romney and President Obama should be seriously thinking about who would take political appointed positions. I know that goes against convention. But if you really want to get up and running right off the bat in January you need to start planning these positions out now.”